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Pakistanis, Who Love to Travel, Jam the Karachi Mail in Lahore
Third-class passengers are limited only by the cars' cubic content. Baggage crams the aisles several
feet deep. The authors saw people entering windows feet first to save their heads. One man thrust his
belongings into a window only to have the train leave before he could fight his way in.
"It is Allah's blessing," he exclaimed, when
we asked if he was happy.
"I came with
nothing, but the Government put me in this
little house and provided me with bullocks,
tools, and seeds."
He added that he had a
generous length of time to pay for all this.
"The soil is wonderful. I have made good
crops. This year I will finish the payments
on the bullocks."
He patted one of the animals affectionately.
"It will be good to know they are mine,"
he smiled.
"And I have made my payments
on the house and land, and have a little
money in the bank."
He waved toward a low adobe building.
"That is best of all," he said.
"The school!
I cannot read or write. But my three chil
dren are all studying, and already the two
oldest can read the newspapers."
Hussain's wife was working in a near-by
cooperative cotton mill. We found 40 women,
wives of neighborhood farmers, busy weaving
cloth.
"We keep enough to clothe our families,"
Begum Hussain told us.
"The balance is
sold, payments made on the government loan,
and the rest divided among the workers. I
helped make our payments on the house and
land this year. It is the first time I ever
earned money."